


Burning

by jenelleman



Series: Don’t Walk Away Universe [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Burning, Cold, Fire and Ice, Kissing, M/M, Midnight, New Year's Eve, sterek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 02:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12718206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenelleman/pseuds/jenelleman
Summary: After all, it was New Year’s, and everyone needs someone to kiss at midnight.





	Burning

Stiles was only on his second beer and was therefore the most sober out of the entire pack.

Well besides Derek; but Stiles was pretty sure he was anti-fun, so he doesn’t count.

He lets out a wince of would be pain, if it had been him Scott had just tried to toss into the pool (side note: werewolves do not bounce off of concrete. Also, Scott has terrible hand eye coordination when drunk).

“One day,” a voice from behind him speaks, causing him drop his beer and flail about quite ridiculously. He barely manages to keep the laughter out of his voice as he continues. “One day, they are going to kill each other.”

Stiles shoots the alpha wolf a glare before reaching into the cooler for another beer.

“Yeah, but that day is not today. Today they’re still alive. We’re all still alive.”

Derek nods, his eyes fixated on his pack, “Yeah, we’ve somehow managed to make it through another shitty year.”

Stiles nods and raises his beer towards Derek, “Here’s to many more shitty years ahead.”

Derek turns so that he’s now facing Stiles, an unreadable expression painted across his face. Not that this was all that unusual; Derek existed in unreadable expressions. It was the low, soft, way he whispered Stiles’ name that sent Stiles down the path of _what the fuck is happening right now._

He managed to take another sip of his beer as he maintained his eye contact with Derek, hoping to draw some strength from the beverage. Rather spectacularly, this method of acquiring bravery failed him.

All Stiles could think was _thank god the pack is too wasted to pay us any attention_ because he was smart enough to recognize that something was happening here; between him and Derek. It had been happening, in the quiet of the night, in the comfort of secrecy.

He couldn’t put a name on it, there was no title to give it. They hadn’t done anything, and they weren’t anything to each other; but something- something big- was happening between them.

Stiles felt it burning beneath his skin, a vibration, a current of electricity that traveled through him whenever they touched.

It was always there, beneath the surface; and it's building slowly until it won’t be able to be contained anymore.

He’s heard people compare falling in love to drowning; everything you feel for this person consumes you completely, drags you in with the current and leaves no small piece of you behind.

But if this, this burning he feels for Derek is love, then he thinks they might have all been wrong. Falling in love is not like drowning, it is like being consumed by fire.

It swallows you up in its flames and turns you into something almost unrecognizable.

Stiles feels Derek’s hand on the back of his neck pulling him out of his thoughts. A smile overtakes his face as Derek comes back into view.

“Hey there big guy.”

“Where’d you go just now?”

Stiles shrugs taking a sip of his beer, “just floating around my head.”

Derek fixes him with a look and Stiles can see it- Derek is all long lines, and hard edges. He is distant and cold; he has crawled his way to the farthest reaches of his mind that he could. It is in the way he looks at Stiles when Stiles feels the burning underneath his skin; a look that is calculatingly cold, the look that can usually shut him up.

And Stiles has to wonder, if he is all electricity and burning fire, will Derek ever go near him? Will Derek allow himself to love someone who is burning like the last embers of the fire that took everything from him?

Is it possible for fire and ice to exist as one?

“Stiles,” Derek’s voice is quiet, and his breath fans over Stiles’ face.

“Derek,” Stiles breathes out his name like it is a part of him; like it lives within him.

Stiles can faintly hear the rest of the pack counting down to midnight and it’s only then that he remembers the reason he’s even here.

“Oh hey,” he hears himself saying. “It’s almost-“

He’s cut off by the firm press of Derek’s lips into his as the pack screams out the final number of the countdown before engaging in their own lip locking duties.

And if in the morning Lydia questions whether or not that was something she had actually seen they’ll use the midnight excuse.

After all, it was New Year’s, and everyone needs someone to kiss at midnight.


End file.
